Elissa Lieberman (b. 1975, Columbus, OH) earned her MFA in 2002 from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Hoffberger School of Painting, under the direct mentorship of Grace Hartigan. Following her graduate studies, Lieberman relocated to California, establishing herself in San Diego as an educator, teaching across various Southern California collegiate institutions and ateliers while simultaneously maintaining her studio practice. She ran the art school at the San Diego Museum of Art before moving to Portland, Oregon for two years. She ultimately returned to San Diego. In 2015, she founded the San Diego Art Loft, an independent art school and premier community sanctuary for observational and figurative art that quickly earned recognition and was nominated by the San Diego City Beat in the top five art schools in San Diego in 2017.

This expansive chapter of teaching and leadership came to an abrupt halt in March 2020. The onset of the global pandemic and a catastrophic studio flood forced the permanent closure of her school. In the immediate wake of this loss, a cascade of profound personal upheavals followed. She was unable to produce work for an extended period of time.

It was not until the fall of 2025 that Lieberman began the arduous process of retraining her hand, engaging in the very foundational exercises she had once designed for her students. Her technical skills returned with a sudden, vital urgency—a complete physical and creative resurrection that culminated in a rigorous, daily portrait exercise. Her practice of simple imprimatura, removing the paint to reveal the form was a physical and spiritual resurrection.

In November 2025, during a holiday visit to New York, Lieberman made the definitive decision to follow a lifelong dream she held as a distant remote possibility. Her vision of living in New York City quickly materialized. She decided in a moment to permanently relocate to the city she had long admired from afar. Despite a second catastrophic flood occurring just days before her departure—which decimated years of archival drawings and studio supplies—Lieberman arrived in New York City in January 2026. She currently works vigorously from her studio in Chelsea, Manhattan, producing large-scale narrative paintings and monumental charcoal drawings that tell true stories and directly process themes of fragmented memory, AI distortions, instability of witness, and psychological survival.